Automatic system of intercommunication.



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2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 Wfi WrM ATTORNEYS PATENTED NOV. 27, 1906.

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A. VAN WAGENBN. AUTOMATIC SYSTEM GF'INTBRCOMMUNICATION.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 31, 1902. RENEWED MAB. 3, 1906 WITNESSES:

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him-,1 zma giy- PATENTED NOV. 27, 1906.

A. VAN WAGENEN. AUTOMATIC SYSTEM OF INTERCOMMUNICATION.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 31, 1902. RENEWED MAR. 3; 1906.

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To all who m itfmlaly concern.-

' use in automatictelephone .communication' may UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 27, 1906.

Application filed July 31,1902. Renewed March 8,1906. Serial No. 304.051.

Be it known that I, ANTHONY VAN WAG-.

. ENEN, a citizen of the United States, residing atSioux City, in the county'of Woodbury and State of Iowa, have invented. certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Systems of Intercommunication; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear and exact description of the invention, suc as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to makeand use the same.

My invention; relates to improvements in automatic s stems of intercommunicationsuch as invo ve the use of a pluralitjfot :separate instruments of communication with electric circuits therefor leading from a cenand" automatic central-station which difi'erent instruments of be placed inoperative tral station, switches by connection at will.

My invention consists in novel means for operating central-station switches by the same circuits which serve to connect the several subscribers? stations with each other and for supplying current for such circuits from a common battery or other source of electric current. v

- My invention is particularly intended for systems and in the following description will be described in its application to an automatic tele hone system; but it will be obvious that t e invention is likewise adaptable for other systoms of intercommunication such,forexam- 10, as tele aph systems, fire-alarm systems,

otelsign 'ngsystems,andthelike. Inthese various systems of intercommunication the instruments which are intended to be directly operated by the persons Who desire to communicate with each other (such, for example, in automatic tele hone systems, as the telephone instruments t emselves, and the calling instruments, by which the central station switches are operated) are commonl called subscribers instruments and will be so called herein, although it will be understood that by so doin I do not limit the use of the herein-describe system in any way.

The objectsof my invention are to su ply current for operating both the subscri ers instruments ofcommunication (such as telephone instruments) and the central-station switches from a singlebattery or other source of electric current withaa minimum number of wires and a mimmumnumber of contacts and to make' the s'ystemas simple, econom trated in greater detail.

- ical, and free from liability to derangement as ossible.

will now proceed to describe my system with reference to the accompanying draw ings, in which the application of my invention to an automatic telephone system such as that covered by the patent to Clark, Ellacott & Johnson, N 0. 582,578, dated May 11, 1897, is illustrated, and will then point out the novel features in claims.

the said drawings, Figure 1 shows dia-, grammatically the application of one form of my invention to a system consisting of two subscribers stations only. Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically the application of my invention to a system comprising three subscribers stations, the wiring at the subscribers stations and at the central station being illus- Fig. 3 is a diagram similar to Fig. 1, illustrating another form of my invention.

Referring first to Fig. 1, the subscribers stations of said figure are designated by reference-letters A and B and the central station by C. The drawings show the ordinary receiver-hook switches 1 1 and telephone-receivers 2 2, the telephone-transmitters and the wiring for the receivers and transmitters being omitted.

3 3 are the callingtransmitters, by the operation of which the central-station switches are 0' erated.

I o not limit myself to the use of any particular calling-transmitter, but may use that shown in Patent No. 588,511, granted to me August 17, 1897. Such calling-transmitters usually comprise a dial and suitable contact mechanism, so that when the dial or a pointer arranged in connection therewith is set to any particular number or space the circuit controlled by said calling-transmitter is completed and broken a number of times corresponding to the particular osition to which t e dial or its pointer has een set, thereby operating the central-station switch a corresponding number of times.

At the central station the numerals 4 and 5 designate the operating-magnets of the central-station switches corresponding to stations A and B, respectively. The construction of the central-station switches is not indicated; but I may use the switch shown in the patent to Clark, Ellacott & Johnson above mentioned or the switch shown in my Patent No.702,684, dated June 17 1902.

Station A connected with the central.

IIO

station by two conductors 8 and 10 andstationB with the central station by two conductors 9 and 11. Conductors 10 and 11 may be permanently connected, and conductors 8 and 9 are arranged to be connected by either of the switches 4 and 5. 6 and 7 represent the contacts of switches 4 and 5, respectively, by which the lines 8 and 9 may be connected.

The switch-magnets 4 and 5 are in shuntcircuits which include a common battery 12, the coils of each magnet being arranged symmetrically on opposite sides of said battery. When the two stations A and B are connected through the closing of contact 6 or contact 7, the shunt-circuits including these magnets are bridge-circuits.

It is obvious that battery 12 will supply current for the operation of the switches 4 and 5 by their respective calling-transmitters 3. To prevent each calling-transmitter from operating any central-station switch other than that of the station to which it belongs, non-inductive resistances 13 are interosed between the bridge-circuit of its own switch and the bridge-circuits of the other switches of the system. These non-inductive resistances may be arranged symmetrically in the outgoing and return lines of each station, as shown in the drawings.

The common battery 12 serves to supply current to the lines both for the o eration of the central-station switches and or the 0perationof the tele hone instruments. This it maydo, because t e switch-magnet coils oiier considerable inductive resistance, so that when stations A and B are connected telephonic fluctuations initiated at station A, for example, will pass through the full circuit connecting said stations and comprising conductors 8, 9, 11, and 10, the non-inductive resistance of this circuit oflering less opposition to the passage of the telephonic fluctuations than the inductive resistance of the shorter circuit, including the bridge connections and switch-magnets at the central station.

' Fig. 2 shows in greater detail how a plurality of subscribers stations may be connected with a central station and through the instru mentality of central-station switches may be connected to each other according to my system. The said figure shows three subscribers stations, lettered D, E, and F, respectively, and a central station G, having central-station switches corresponding each to one of the subscribers stations and lettered D, E, and F, res actively.

The several receiver-liook switches of this figure are all numbered 1, the telephonereceivers are all numbered 2, the calling-transmitters are all numbered 3, and the conductors connecting the subscribers stations with the central stat'on are numbered 8 and 10, respectively.

The conductors 8 may be termed the outgoing-conductors and the. conductors 10 return-conductors, though there is no distinction to.- be made in the function of these conductors. Each conductor 8 is connected to the contact-arm 14 ofits respective central-station switch through a non-inductive resistance 13 and is likewise connected to a contact-point of each of the other centralstation switches of the. system. The returnconductors 10 are all connected together at the central station-throughtheir'non-induct- .ive resistances 13. The switch-magnets, which are all numbered 4, are connected across their respective conductors 8 and 10 by bridge-circuits 15, including the centralstation battery,'the coils of the magnets being arranged symmetrically on opposite sides of said battery.

At the several subscribers stations each calling-transmitter 3 isconnected across the corresponding conductors 8 and 10 by conductors 16, and each conductor 8 is connect ed through non-inductive resistance 17 with the hook of its receiver-hook 'switch 1, and each return conductor 10 is connected through a corresponding non-inductive resistance 18 and through the tele hone-receiver 2 and transmitter '19 with 't e upper contact-point of the corresponding receiver-- hook switch. A call-bell 20 and magnetogenerator 21 for 'rin ing may be located in a local circuit'22, leading from the lower contact-point of the receiver-hook switch to the inductive resistance 18.

The operation of this system is as follows: When one of the subscribers desires to communicate with another station of the system, he 0 erates his calling-transmitter 3, and there y alternately com letes and breaks a circuit from battery 12 iiiirough the magnetcoils of his central-station switch andthrough his conductors 8 and 10 andthe conductor 16 and the contacts of the calling-transmitter so operated. The non-inductive resistances 13 prevent the o eration of the other centralstation switc es. In the drawings the switch D is shown as connecting station D with station F. The subscriber at station D having completed this connection may call station F by means of his magneto-generator 21, (the receiverhook being down.) He may then remove his receiver from its hook, thus completing a telephonic circuit through non-inductive resistances 17 and 18 and his telephone receiver and transmitter, and when the subscriber at the called station does the same the tele honic circuit is complete.

In Fig. 3 I il ustrate an alternative arrangement of circuits and apparatus, in which arrangement the switch-magnets likewise constitute inductive resistance in the centralstation bridge-circuits. The ii re shows two subscribers stations H and and a central station K. The receiver-hook switches,

telephone-receivers, and calling-transmitters are designated by the same reference-numerals as in Fig. 1, as are the switch-magnets, and the switch-contacts, and the central-station battery. Two conductors 23 and 24 connect each subscribers station with the central station. Both wires 23 are connected with the one pole of a central-station battery 25. The other pole of this battery is connected to bridge-conductors 26, leading to the coils of'theswitch-magnets 4 and 5, and thence to the return conductors 24. These conductors 24 are likewise connected, through non-inductive resistances 27, with switch contact-pieces 6 and 7, respectively, each such switch connection being adapted to connect its conductor 24 with the corresponding conductor of the other station. For ringing I have shown call-bells 28 and magnetogenerators 29 V in shunt-circuits connecting conductors 24 and 23, each shunt comprising a condenser 30.

The 0 eration of this arrangement of circuits an apparatus is precisely the same as of that heretofore described, and no separate description is necessary. The non-inductive resistances 27 cause the calling-transmitter at each station to operate the switch corresponding to that station only and prevent it from operating the switches of the other stations.

In another application for Letters Patent, filed July 31, 1902, Serial No. 117,812, I have claimed the permanent bridging of the operating-magnets of the central-station switches across the subscribers circuits and a source of electric energy included in common in such bridge connectlons; also, the inclusion of additional inductive resistance in such bridge connections and the interposition of resistance between the switch-magnet of each subscriber and the switch-ma nets of the other subscribers. Therefore I 0 not claim such inventions broadly herein, but only claim the same in a system employin a single circuit for each subscriber, serving both for conversation and the operation of the central-station switches.

It is obvious that myinvention is susceptible of very many variations and modifications in the arrangement of the instruments and circuits of the apparatus, and I do not limit myself to the particular arrangement described.

It is obvious that the conductor 23 of Fig. 3 may be a common return-conductor for a number of stations, if the location of the stations renders this convenient, or that ground connections may be substituted for said con-' ductors 23.

What I claim is 1. In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station, a plurality of subscribers stations, asingle circu t for each subscribers station connecting 1t with the central station, and means at the central station for operatively connecting lines of different subscribers, comprising automatic switches-having each electrically-operated contact mechanism including an operating-magnet permanently included in the corresponding subscribers circuit out of the main path of telephonic fluctuations therethrough, of a common source of electrical energy for said subscribers circuits, included in circuit with each such magnet, and arranged likewise to supply current for the operation of subscribers telephone instruments;

and telephone instruments and means for operating said central-station switches, at the several subscribers stations.

2. In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station, a plurality of subscribers stations, a single circuit for each subscribers station connecting it with the central station, and means at the central station for connecting lines of different subscribers, comprising automatic switches having each electrically-operated contact mechanism including an operatingmagnet bridged across the corresponding subscribers circuit, of a common source of electrical energy for said subscribers circuits, for supplying current for operating subscribers telephone instruments and the said central-station switches, included in the bridge connections of said magnets; and telephone instruments and means for operating said central-station switches, at the several subscribers stations.

3. In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station, a plurality of subscribers stations, a single circuit for each subscribers station connecting it with the central station, and means at the central station for connecting lines of different subscribers, comprising automatic switches each having electrically-operated contact mechanism including an operatingmagnet bridged across the corresponding ICC) subscribers circuit, of a common source of electrical energy for said subscribers circuits, for supplying current for operating subscribers telephone instruments and the said central-station switches, included in the bridge connections of the said magnets, resistance interposed in each subscribers circuit between the bridge connection thereof and the bridge connections of the other subscribers circuits, and telephone instruments and means for operating said central-station switches, at the several subscribers stations.

4. In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station,a plurality of subscribers stations, a single circuit for each subscribers station connecting it with the central station, and means at the central station for connecting lines of different subscribers, comprising automatic switches each having electrically-operated contact mechanism including an operatingmagnet bridged across the corresponding subscribers circuit, of a common source of electrical energy for said subscribers circuits, for supplying current for operating subscribers te.ephone instruments and the said central-station switches, included in the bridge connections of the said magnets, inductive resistance in each such bridge connection, non-inductive resistance interposed in each subscribers circuit between the bridge connection thereof and the bridge connections of the other subscribers circuits, and telephone instruments and means for operating said central-station switches, at the several subscribers stations.

5. In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station, a plurality of subscribers stations, a single circuit for each subscribers station connecting it with the central station, and means at the central station for connecting lines of different subscribers, comprising automatic switches each having electrically-operated contact mechanism including an operatingmagnet bridged across the corresponding subscribers circuit, and constituting inductive resistance in such bridge connections, of a common source of electrical energy for said subscribers circuits, for supplying current for operating subscribers telephone instruments and the said central-station switches, included in the bridge connections of the said magnets, resistance interposed in each subscribers circuit between the bridge connection thereof and the bridge connections of the other subscribers circuits, and telephone instruments and means for operating said central-station switches, at the several subscribers stations.

6. In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station, a plurality of subscribers stations, a single circuitv for each subscribers station connecting it with the central station, and means at the central station for connecting lines of different subscribers, comprising automatic switches each having electrically-operated contact mechanism including an operatingmagnet bridged across the corresponding subscribers circuit and line-contacts arranged to connect the subscribers lines, of a common source of electrical energy for said subscribers circuits, for supplying current for operating subscribers telephone instruments and the said central-station switches, included in the bridge connections of the said ma nets, resistance interposed between the bri ge connection of each switch and the line-contacts of that switch, and telephone instruments and means for operating said central-station switches, at the several subscribers stations. I

7, In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station, a plurality of subscribers stations, a single circuit for each subscribers station connecting it with the central station, and means at the central station for connecting linesof different subscribers, comprising automatic switches each having. electrically-operated contact mechanism including an operating magnet bridged across the corresponding contact mechanism including an operatmgmagnet bridged across the corresponding subscribers circuit, of a common source of electrical energy for said subscribers circuits, for supplying current for operating subscribers telephone instruments and the said central-station switches,. included in the bridge connections of the said magnets, tele phone instruments at the several subscribers stations, included in the subscribers circuits, and signalin means at the subscribers stations connecte to said circuits in shunt with respect to the telephone instruments.

9. In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station, a plurality of subscribers stations, a single circuit for each subscribers station connecting it with the central station, and means at the central station for connecting lines of different subscribers, comprising automatic switches each having electrically-operated contact mechanism including an operatingmagnet bridged across the corresponding subscribers circuit, of a common source of electrical ener for said subscribers circuits, included in the brid e connections of the said magnets, means or operating the central-station switches, brid ed across the subscribers circuits at the su scribers stations, and telephone instruments at the several subscribers stations.

10. In an automatic telephone system, the combination with a central station, a plurality of subscribers stations, a single circuit for each subscribers station connecting it with the central station, and means at the central station for connecting lines of different subscribers, comprising automatic switches each having electrically-operated contact mechanismincluding an operating magnet bridged across the corresponding subscribers circuit, of a common source of electrical energy for said subscribers cirstations for operating said central-station cuits, included in the bridge connections of switches. 10 the said magnets, telephone instruments at In testimony whereof I affix my signature the subscribers stations, signaling means at in the presence of two witnesses.

the subscribers stations, switches arranged ANTHONY VAN WAGENEN. to switch either said telephone instruments Witnesses: or said signaling means, into the subscribers H. I. BROWN, circuits at will, and means at the subscribers R. J. ANDREWS. 

